Welcome to join us online. EYE VIEW. The PROSE Eye View Editorial Team. Welcome to

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1 BOSTONSIGHT S E-NEWS. WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY OF SIGHT! CONTENTS Welcome to BostonSight Network 2 Community Resources 3 Education and Research 4 Indescribable 5 News and Events 6 Welcome to 2017 Welcome to 2017! It is our wish that the New Year brings happiness and good health to you and your loved ones. There will be many exciting things happening at BostonSight this year, and PROSE Eye View is the place to learn all about it. The first of our exciting initiatives to share with you is our Guardian Angel program. Patients and family members often ask how they can express their gratitude for the compassionate care they received. Now, they can do just that. When you make a gift through the Guardian Angel Program, you thank and recognize the doctor, technician, or staff member who helped to make your experience at BostonSight a positive one. Speaking of staff, in recent months we have added two new staff members to our team. Read on to meet Colin and Klimenty and learn about their roles in the organization. join us online. LINKEDIN.COM/ COMPANY/ YOUTUBE.COM/BOSTONSIGHT FACEBOOK.COM/BOSTONSIGHT We have added a resource to our library of BostonSight PROSE materials. If you need or provide assistance applying and removing BostonSight PROSE devices, visit our website and review our new manual for assisted PROSE device application and removal. This useful, three page guide offers step-bystep instructions for those who need a little extra help with their daily PROSE routine. Finally, in 2017, PROSE Eye View will be published bi-monthly, with an extra holiday edition in December. We will still publish all of the great BostonSight content that you enjoy, so please stay engaged. Best wishes, The PROSE Eye View Editorial Team 1

2 BOSTONSIGHT NETWORK Major C. Kelly Olson honored Congratulations to Major C. Kelly Olson, OD, MBA, FAAO (pictured at right), BostonSight PROSE clinician at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC). Dr. Olson was recently recognized as both the Army Optometrist of the Year, and the Federal Service Optometrist of the Year. Dr. Olson has previously earned a number of other military honors and distinctions, including the Meritorious Service Medal. We are very proud of him and the incredible work he and his staff do to help improve the quality of life for those members of our military and their families with corneal disease. Newest PROSE publication from Dr. Chiu Gloria Chiu, OD, FAAO, of the BostonSight PROSE clinic at USC Roski Eye Institute, Los Angeles, recently served as first author on a publication entitled PROSE Treatment in Atypical Ocular Graft-Versus-Host Disease. The study reports the case of a patient who was suffering with sight-threatening complications of graft-versus-host disease; his situation was improved through systemic immunosuppressant therapy combined with overnight wear of his PROSE devices. (Please note that, unless your doctor specifically tells you otherwise, PROSE devices are not to be worn overnight.) 2

3 COMMUNITY RESOURCES New blogs about apps, and more Recent posts to Connected Visions, the BostonSight blog, include one about BARD Mobile, a service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). This application provides access to thousands of books, magazines, and music scores; more titles are added daily. Before you can use this app, you must register with a braille and talking-book library in the NLS network of cooperating libraries. If you aren t registered but think you qualify for this service because you cannot read regular print as a result of a visual or physical disability, visit or call NLS-READ to apply for service. Also featured recently is BeSpecular, a 2016 app that allows sighted volunteers to help those with visual impairments. BeSpecular, available for IOS and Android, allows the user to take a photo and/or ask a question, and anonymously receive help from a sighted volunteer. Other recent posts focus on selenium, vitamin C, and other nutrients that are essential for good eye health. Visit Connected Visions today and learn more! Angel Flights East - help for children and adults New to our list of national travel resources is Angel Flights East (AFE). AFE is a non-profit organization that provides free, non-emergency transportation for a variety of medical reasons, including ongoing burn treatment and chemotherapy. AFE serves the northeast United States, from Virginia to Maine to Ohio. 3

4 EDUCATION AND RESEARCH BostonSight sponsors Global Specialty Lens Symposium This month, doctors and staff from our Needham, MA, headquarters will join BostonSight PROSE clinicians from across the country at the 2017 Global Specialty Lens Symposium. BostonSight is an innovator in scleral prosthetic devices, and our BostonSight PROSE Clinical Fellows often have a strong presence at the GSLS meeting; this year is no exception, as a number of our doctors will be presenting their work at the conference. Welcome our newest optometry resident Jessica Rodriquez is the newest fourth year student from MCPHS University s Optometry School to make BostonSight part of her curriculum; she will rotate through BostonSight on January 9th - April 28th. While here, she will work with our BostonSight PROSE clinicians to learn about the use of prosthetic devices for irregular cornea, ocular surface disease, and after eye surgery. 4

5 INDESCRIBABLE Scott Thompson - a patient s story To Scott Thompson s great surprise, retirement came early for this 61 year old. If you had asked Scott in 2015 to predict why, he surely would have guessed that it would be due to his eyesight. He would have guessed correctly, but not in a way he could have ever imagined. I ve always had really bad vision, even as a child, remembers Scott. He needed to wear glasses to be able to see. In the late 1970 s, while doing yard work, his glasses were accidently knocked off by a tree branch. Unable to find them, or function without them, Scott had no choice but to make his way back to the house, and wait for someone to come home to help him. Feeling so helpless and vulnerable convinced him to undergo the newly available radial keratotomy (RK) surgery, during which the shape of the cornea is changed to improve near-sightedness. After the procedure Scott enjoyed great vision for a few years, but soon was back to wearing glasses; over time, he needed increasingly stronger prescriptions to be able to see properly. In 2012, having reached the point where glasses were no longer effective, and unable to wear soft contact lenses because of his previous RK surgery, Scott was referred to a cornea specialist. Two years, one eye surgery, and approximately seven different types of hard contact lenses later, Scott was running out of hope. The curvature of his eye made being comfortably fit with hard contacts impossible. It was the same every time. I would gradually increase the time each day that I would wear the hard contacts, and each time, when I got to about 6-7 hours, I just couldn t stand the discomfort. I would have to start decreasing wear time, until the pain was so bad that I couldn t wear them at all anymore. Finally, his cornea specialist admitted that there was nothing more that he could do. He offered Scott two choices: BostonSight PROSE treatment or a cornea transplant. Scott chose PROSE. During his first day in the highly customized prosthetic devices, he experienced some pain, and thought, Here we go again. This is just going to be another waste of my time. The next day, Scott wore his PROSE devices to work, and was thrilled at the excellent vision and comfort they provided. I wore them all day, and kept waiting for the pain that never came. After so many failed attempts to comfortably correct his vision, Scott was understandably skeptical, and it took him three months to truly believe that he had finally found a long term solution. PROSE is a complete life changer for me. My hard contacts hurt all the time, but most of the time I can t even tell that I have my PROSE devices in. He has high praise for Michelle Lee, OD, his BostonSight PROSE clinician at Weill Cornell Eye Associates. Dr. Lee is fantastic, very personable, very friendly and concerned. She did a great job; I was very happy with her. I wish I had gone to see her years ago and avoided all the pain and lost hope by trying all those hard contacts. BostonSight PROSE treatment improved Scott s vision and quality of life so dramatically that he is choosing to spend his remaining years enjoying it. Scott hasn t made any big plans yet for retirement; he is still too busy delighting in the simple things that life with clear, pain-free eyesight can offer. I have my freedom back - I can drive whenever I want, and I can ride my motorcycle again. I can work with tools again without worrying that I ll hurt myself because I can t see well enough. Everything is easier now, everything is better. I don t even have words to describe the improvement that PROSE treatment has brought to my life. 5

6 NEWS AND EVENTS Welcome our new team members BostonSight recently welcomed two new employees to our team! Klimenty (Kim) Levin (pictured below, left) joined our staff as a Software/ Systems Engineer. A native of Russia, Kim has been working as a software engineer in the US since 1990, most recently as a consultant for Fidelity Investments. Kim holds a Bachelor of Science in Geophysics and a Master of Science in Applied Math. We were very impressed with the work ethic of 2016 summer associate Colin Bateman (pictured below, right), and offered him a full time position as a lab technician. Colin is a recent college graduate, and comes to us with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst BostonSight. All rights reserved. 464 Hillside Avenue, Suite 205, Needham, MA Phone: Fax: Web: